Five secret meetings in Destiny's Hydroponics Lab
by Shenandoah Risu
Summary: "Close the hatch."


**Title: Five secret meetings in Destiny's Hydroponics Lab**  
**Author: Shenandoah Risu  
Rating:** G  
**Content Flags:** big secrets  
**Characters:** Camille Wray, Ronald Greer, Tamara Johansen, Eli Wallace, Dale Volker, Adam Brody, Vanessa James, Chloe Armstrong, Nicholas Rush, Everett Young  
**Word Count:** 1,035  
**Excerpt: **_"Close the hatch."_  
**Author's Notes:** Written for the March 2013 challenge "Garden" at the LJ Comm gate_women.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own SGU. I wouldn't know what to do with it. Now, Young... Young I'd know what to do with. ;-)  
**Thanks for reading! Feedback = Love. ;-)**

**oOo**

**Five secret meetings in Destiny's Hydroponics lab**

"Are you alone?"

Greer shimmies up to the entrance of the Hydroponics Lab.

Camile looks up from where she's thinning out seedlings.

"Yes. Did you bring the stuff?"

Greer takes one more look, craning his neck to spy down the corridor, then slips into the lab and closes the hatch.

"Whew."

Camile smiles.

"Come on, now. I know lots of guys who can-"

"But this is a secret," Greer hisses. "I don't want Dale or Lisa to find out. Not yet, anyway."

"All right, fair enough. Let me see what you've got."

Greer pulls out a tangled mess of strings from under his BDU shirt and hands it to Camile.

"Wow, Ronald – this is great! You're making such good progress! I think you may be ready to move on to the-"

"Shouldn't they be a bit longer?" he interrupts her.

Camile cocks her head. "That's up to you, really. But Lisa often complains about being cold, so maybe –"

"I should make hers longer."

"Uh huh."

He sits down next to her.

"Okay, now. Here's how you get started on knitting the heel of a sock…"

**oOo**

"Two of those yellowish ones."

"Ah, TJ, they're so bitter."

"Eli, you're such a wuss. Give me those."

Eli hesitates, then gently pulls two leaves off an herb and hands them to the medic.

"Thanks. Yo, check the hallway, will ya?"

Eli peeks out the door. "Nothing there."

"Close the hatch."

Eli does as he's told. "What's this about?"

TJ waves him over.

"Close your eyes and open your mouth."

"What? No! Are you trying to poison me?"

"Of course not, you dork. I want you to taste something, and you can't tell anybody. Not yet."

"All right. But if I die…"

"You won't. Come on. Besides, I'm a medic."

"Yeah. So remember that _'Do no harm'_ thing."

TJ rolls her eyes. Eli sticks out his tongue, feels TJ place a small round something on it. He carefully bites down on it and chews.

"Oh my god!"

TJ grins. "Cool, eh?"

"Nutella! Where the heck did you-"

TJ holds up a small green berry.

"No way. No way!"

"Yes way. Discovered it by accident yesterday. What do you think? Ice cream?"

"I'm helping," Eli sputters. "Holy shit. Nutella berries! Becker can't refuse that one!"

**oOo**

"Okay, finished." Volker wipes his hands after having refilled the minerals reservoirs. "How much more have you got?"

Brody pauses the spray nozzle. "Two bins. I'm going as fast as I can. Go ahead and fire up my laptop."

Volker opens Brody's bag, then checks the corridor and quickly closes the hatch.

"What folder?"

"Pavarotti."

"Wow. Bit full of yourself, aren't you?"

Brody snorts. "You're the one to talk."

"All right, all right," Volker mutters, then watches Brody put the spray nozzle away.

"Which one do you want?"

"I picked last time. It's your turn."

"Okay…" Volker tabs through the files.

"Verdi?"

"Sure."

"Don Carlo?"

"Fine by me."

Volker taps the keys. "I had never even heard about Opera Karaoke before."

"Yeah… My sister gave that to me as a gag gift because she heard me sing in the shower."

"Bless her heart."

"True dat."

"Well, here we go. Let me pull up the lyrics."

"I swear, the only reason anything grows down here is because of us," Brody preens.

Volker shrugs. "Fringe benefits. You're Don Carlo, I'll take Rodrigo. Ready?"

And moments later, a short pizzicato and then a full orchestra crescendo usher in the accompaniment for one of the most magnificent opera duets ever written:

_"Dio, che nell'alma infondere_  
_Amor volesti e speme_  
_Desio nel cure accendere_  
_Tu dei di libertà._

_Desio nel cure accendere_  
_Tu dei di libertà._  
_Dio, che nell'alma infondere_  
_Amor volesti e speme_  
_Desio nel cure accendere_  
_Tu dei di libertà._

_Desio nel cure accendere_  
_Tu dei di libertà._  
_Vivremo insiem, e morremo insiem!_  
_Grado estremo sarà: libertà!"_

And if the plants could talk they would say that those two are actually very good singers.

**oOo**

"If any of the boys find out I'm dead meat."

Vanessa closes the hatch and hands Chloe a small bag.

"They won't," Chloe assures her. "I'd be 'the girl' in no time."

"Can I do yours first?"

Chloe smiles. "Of course. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, something like that, maybe." Vanessa gestures around her own head.

"Okay, give it a shot."

Vanessa pulls out a brush and begins to work on Chloe's hair.

"I've never been one to play hairdresser," she admits, "but I swear this is one of the few fun things to do around here."

"Seriously? You never played salon as a kid?"

"Nope. I was a bit of a tomboy. And then the Air Force – well, you know."

Chloe sighs. "Oh yes. Ouch."

"Oh, sorry sorry sorry…"

"S'okay."

"If I part it like so and then braid it down there, you think that would work?"

Chloe purses her lips. "I dunno. Go ahead and try anyway. We'll see. And I just got an idea for my next style for you!"

**oOo**

"Rush? You there?"

"Yes. Be quiet. Someone might hear."

Young surveys the lab and spots Rush hiding behind a circular growth chamber.

"Is it still here?"

"Close the hatch."

Young reaches for the controls.

"Well?"

Rush pries off a wall panel, reaches in and pulls out the chess board and box of chess pieces.

Young takes the board and sets it up on a counter.

"White or black?"

Rush makes a face. "You won last time so you get to pick."

"Hmmm…Decisions, decisions…"

"Go with black."

"Why?"

Rush gestures. "Look at you."

Young sighs. "Rush, if the colonel was here we wouldn't be playing chess, okay?"

"Fine. White it is."

They begin to set up their sides of the board.

"Why couldn't you have made them – say, green and purple?"

Rush looks up in surprise. "Eli was asking the same thing."

Young grins. "Kid's smart."

"Don't get me started."

"All right, I won't. Your turn to open."

Rush makes his first move. "I'm going to wipe the floor with you today."

"Ha. You said that last time."

"I mean it today."

Young smiles wolfishly. "We'll see."

.

* * *

_**Thanks for reading! A comment or feedback would be lovely. :)**_

.


End file.
